Who and why is hiding the report on gold smuggling?

Since 2075, two commissions on organized gold smuggling have been formed and two different reports have been prepared. But both reports have not been made public. Whereas in 8 (a) of the Commission of Inquiry Act 2026, it is said that the contents of the report shall be published for public information, except those that have an adverse effect on Nepal's sovereignty, integrity or strategic importance, or on public peace and order, or on relations between different castes or sects, and with allies.

On February 18, 2074, the secret of the involvement of Chudamani upreti called Gore from Jhapa was revealed in the case of 33 kg of illegal gold being removed from Tribhuvan International Airport and the murder of Sanam Shakya. After this incident, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli formed a high-level investigation committee under the leadership of Joint Secretary Ishwarraj Paudel working in the Ministry of Home Affairs. This committee prepared a 752-page report after three months of study. In which it is concluded that Gore's group smuggled 3800 kg of gold and brought it to Nepal. In the report, the names of 293 people who are directly and indirectly involved in gold smuggling have been mentioned. After submitting the report to the then Prime Minister Oli on July 16, 2075, it was kept secret. The report, which pointed out the dubious role of political party leaders, business houses and even government employees, was not made public by any subsequent government. Based on the report given by the inquiry committee, no one started the work of further investigation, breaking the gold smuggling net and taking action against the culprits. Even after Lamichhane became the Minister of Home Affairs, it does not seem that this report is being made public or that there is any further investigation based on it.

Last time, the government formed an inquiry committee under the chairmanship of former judge Dilliram Acharya to investigate the smuggling of 9 kg of gold that was smuggled in electronic cigarette (Vape) and 61 kg of gold that was smuggled in a brake shoe from Tribhuvan airport. What is strange is that this latest committee was formed on the authority of UML, which kept secret the investigation report on gold smuggling during its own government. Soon after Lamichhane became Home Minister, on Chait 1, the committee submitted a 485-page report on gold smuggling. Based on this report, Lamichhane continues the investigation process but does not seem to want to make this report public.

Since the previous reports were not made public, there has been no concrete initiative to eliminate the weaknesses of the state mechanism pointed out by him, nor has the illegal importation of gold been stopped. The lack of serious investigations into organized gold smuggling and investigations based on political bias have not weakened the international smuggling network. It seems that seven quintals of illegal gold has been seized in just one decade since the financial year 2070/71. In the financial year 2074/75, the highest amount of 214 kilos of illegal gold was seized. In the financial year 2080/81, 93.6 kg of illegal gold was recovered. Looking at the data for 10 years, it seems that at least 20 kg of illegal gold has been recovered from Salakhala every year.

Former DIG Hemant Mall says hiding reports on organized gold smuggling is evidence of collusion. Expressing suspicion that the report on smuggling of 33 kg of gold was not with the government, he said that the names of big people close to the party were mentioned in the report, so it disappeared. He said, "The government is hiding the full text of the latest report on gold smuggling by bringing out only what they want. This report should not disappear like the previous one.'